The secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.

February 11, 2014

Whoa. Tough one. Even though I work in color all the time, I don't usually think in terms of color. I think I'll flip this one on its ear and give you ten favorite pictures with red in them. Thanks Carole!

1. Of course, since I live in St. Louis, one of my favorite red things might include the St. Louis Cardinals. I don't know if you were paying attention last year, but we had a pretty good season until the end there.

Here we are at a World Series game in St. Louis : my favorite priest, myself and Dear Daughter.

2. We had to win the NLCS to get to the world series, of course, and that was a little more fun!

Hubster and Dear Daughter and yours truly at the NLCS championship game. There are even hand knits.

3. See all the fun?

4. Loved knitting this E. L. F. hat -- inspired by the pattern, but not in fingering weight yarn. Nephew's lucky he got this one... I love it.

6. Knit friend Lauren's baby Elodie was born this fall. Knit friend Deborah finished her Dreambird KAL around the same time. I tried this pattern and it kicked my hiney -- **jealous** -- but this picture is a lovely one and it's got red in it... ; )

7. Dear friend Sr. Rosemary moved away from us this summer -- we had a party in the back yard to send her off in style. Rosemary and I were altos together in the church choir. She's moved on to teach high-school math elsewhere in Missouri. I miss her.

8. Knit alongs figure pretty large in my life right now -- I run them for two days a week and field questions about them the rest of the time... and I love doing them. One of my favorites so far has been the Rockefeller. 32 women and I knit this scarf together. My knitters ranged from beginner (Rockefeller was her first finished project) to this very experienced lady. Isn't she gorgeous?!

9. Our trip to Kiawah this summer finally resulted in my getting to go to Husk! Reservations at this award-winning restaurant had eluded me until this trip. I forget what I ate by now, but the dinner was lovely and I got to share it with family and visiting friends. Fr. John again... and Fr. Stephen who visited us in Kiawah, and Hubster, Daughter and Dear Brother-in-Law. So fun! Fr. Stephen and I are wearing red, see?

10. Not red, but orange, I guess, but my favorite selfie of the year. Here are Dear Daughter, myself, and Grandpa visiting Kennedy Space Center -- we took Granny and Grandpa to see Hubster's project there. What a grand trip it was, getting to share that marvelous venue with family.

October 13, 2011

And my life is full of little things right now. Little things distract me.

One of the things I always ask my knitting students is whether they think they are a "forest" person or a "trees" person. Whether they like to have the whole picture in front of them, to get a sense of where they are going with a project or whether they like to know the steps involved, the details, and work (and think) in that order.

I'm mostly a forest person. Details are fine and everything, but I won't remember or understand the reason for the details if I can't apply them to the project as a whole.

This applies to more than just knitting too, by the way. Like, for instance, car buying. Hubster and I have agreed that I should get a smaller vehicle. We've even agreed on said vehicle -- an Audi Q5.

As far as I'm concerned, you don't want to know what all those numbers are that go into the price of the car. It's like sausage, you don't want to know what goes into it, you just want to appreciate the outcome. The end numbers this guy quoted were fine -- but he got there with some pretty shady roundaboutation, to which Hubster objected. He wants to deal with "someone with a shred of integrity." I guess I'll be walking to work then, 'cause I've yet to buy a car from someone I didn't want to kill at the end of the transaction.

Anywhoo -- this past weekend, Rachel and I went to Joy's house in the country to spin and spend a lovely day. Lots of good food and fiber people.

Rachel's trying her hand at batts -- the above 3-ply is the result of three of her 1 (and a little) ounce batts. It's a lovely melted Neapolitan ice cream color. It makes me happy. I think, though, that I'll have to hand it over either just like it is or knit up as a sample.

I'd say that I prefer the yarn I achieve if I ply it up using either a traditional or a Navajo three-ply construction. Once the yarn is knit up? Like in my Vitamin D? It doesn't matter so much... but if I'm going to sit around and admire the stuff, a 3-ply is prettier.

Now that's just stupid.

This two ply yarn was born because I wanted to start spinning for another sweater and these plies were hogging up all my bobbins. It's one ply of Corgi Hill Farm BFL/silk and one ply of a moorit Shetland wool. Seriously. And it's killer. The hand and weight of the yarn is just right. It'll be nubby and there's no way I could reproduce it, but I have to make something great out of it because it's so soft.

Yes, I used soft and Shetland in the same paragraph. The moorit tones down the primary colors of the BFL/silk. It was dyed in a gradient progression too -- before that was even popular. I win.

Ok, non yarnies... stop nodding off. I can tell when you do that.

The trees that have color in my yard so far have the same kind of color. Red and green. Here is one of the Oak Leaf Hydrangea bushes. Beautiful reds and even deep pinks.

And here is the dogwood tree. Just a hint of red.

I tweeted this morning that I felt like I was in a snow globe what with the leaves drifting down outside the window. It's still warm here, but it'll be time for wool wearing soon.

September 19, 2011

I hope that, if you spin, you have a group with which to gather and share spinning. I belong to a lovely Sunday afternoon group and we gather once a month to spin and talk about spinning with people who don't go catatonic when you bemoan the staple length of Wensleydale or ponder the suitability of Finn wool for socks.

We meet in the back room of the knit shop and we chat and spin for a few hours. Customers wander through and wonder what we're up to. Someone (usually a customer's husband dragged in on Sunday errands) invariably pokes a head through the door and says something like, "Oh, that kind of spinning. They said you were spinning back here, and I wondered ... "

Like we haven't heard that one before.

They especially wonder what we're up to when we whoop it up after this kind of entanglement... You knew this was going to happen at some point. All those spinning wheels and all that drafted fiber dangling about.

Some of us spin with drop spindles and most spin with wheels. We spin blends and different breeds of wool and discuss the merits of drafting versus rolags.

We bring in our recently spun yarn and hand spun hand knits to share and ooo and ahh over.

We show off recent acquisitions. Can I just say that the sheepy smell coming out of this sampler box should be bottled and sold. Or boxed and sold... ; ) That's a box of several ounces each of 20 sheep breeds. We decided it should be spun and knit into a sheep breed striped sweater. How cool would that be?! Except when you explained it to non-spinners, which you'd have to do because it's so cool, they'd glaze over.

One of us just spends an inordinate amount of time playing with the Sports Action setting her camera.

June 30, 2011

Home again. Here are a few more pictures of vacation fun, though, just to keep me centered.

My lack of dolphin sightings was a theme on the vacation. Everyone but gimpy ol' me had seen them by the 2nd week, either on a boat outing or riding bikes on the beach, which I couldn't do. Too windy. It's hard enough on the bike paths with just one leg, and that's all I could use to pedal. To my credit, I got up to 4 miles round trip toward the end of our stay. I had to go hear the snapping shrimp again and that marsh was a good ways away from the house. Yay me. But I digress.

The whining got to Dear Husband, apparently, so he took me on a dolphin cruise. This pod was feeding at the inlet round back of the island. They'd push schools of fish up onto the beach and launch themselves onto the sand to eat the stranded fish. It's a feeding strategy that apparently started here on the Kiawah river, but is now common from Florida to North Carolina -- naturalists think that the Kiawah pods teach their young, the males of which go out into the ocean and disperse when they come of age. The behavior's been featured on a National Geographic show. Really cool, but hard to photograph.

This photo is kind of fuzzy, but if you look closely, you can see the baby dolphin's dorsal fin just behind his mother's. He was born in February. So cute. My vacation was complete.

There was, of course, shark fishing. These boys. No matter how much they are enjoying themselves, they do not smile broadly enough to show their braces...

Smile, dear daughter... She's a little more comfortable with the process this year. ; )

Along with us the second week were Blogless Janet and her family. Here, her Dear Son is getting pointers from our favorite Kiawah Island naturalist/dolphin spotter/shark fisherman John. How many scrapbooks do you think that guy's in? A lot, I bet.

But enough about relaxing. I've got finished knitting to show off.

Ta Da! (Many thanks to Photographer Deborah.) Celery re-worked. See how the collar lies flat now? Yay me. Needs blocking and while I've lost 23 lbs, when I see this picture, I realize I should lose 20 more. I'll get on that. Either that or I should crop more selectively...

That aside, did I tell you how much I love this sweater? The fit is good, the yarn is light, but wool so it'll work through multiple seasons. One downfall, I guess, is that the color is so distinctive that when I wear it all the freaking time, people will notice. Let 'em I say. I love this sweater.

Too bad I finished it right when the weather is about to turn hot. Oh, well... I'll have to go to the movies. Or somewhere where the air conditioning is cold. Definitely.

This cutie took just a little more than a skein of yarn and 3 days to knit. So cute, so fast.

And finally, a WIP.

Rachel of Dyeabolical is doing sock blanks now. Except she calls them something else that I can't remember. (For the uninitiated, a blank is knit fabric that you dye and then unravel to knit something else. Really. The joy is in seeing how the dye job knits up in the new article. Geeky, but fun.)

She tossed this blank at me last night for a test knit. I suppose I committed to socks, I can't remember, but by the time I got home, I'd cast on for a long ruffled scarf. I'm not sure how it happened.

This blank is knit with two strands, so you knit socks two at a time or you do what I'm doing with a scarf which is alternate rows, 2 with each strand. Works for me.

I'm justifying my lack of sock-knitting to myself with the idea that lots of folks knit scarves with sock yarn and Rachel's customers would love to know how this stuff knits up in a long, thin, ruffled, kerchief-shaped scarf. Who's with me?

June 17, 2011

I finished the knitting on the Celery Cardigan in the car on the way down here. Well, ostensibly. The sweater fits just the way I want it too. It's light enough for air-conditioning and it's a little bilgy (which doesn't show up in pictures, but is fun and subtle in person). I love the way the dye-job acted.

Ignore the wrinkles. They're there because I stuffed it into a bag when I finished. This is why.

I knit the increases at the mandarin-ish collar incorrectly. There are too many of them so the collar is floppy where it should be flat. Harumph. The pattern was clear enough, I just jumped to the conclusion that I should do the corner increases every time I came to them on a right side row. Not so much. I could put decorative buttons on the flaps and call them lapels. Or I could rip out all of those short row increases I'm clutching and re-do this puppy so it's right. Probably I'll choose door number two. I've got 16 hours in the car coming up -- plenty of time for re-knitting. Harumph again.

But don't you love the yarn?

Here are some of my other beach house pastimes. One at which I am terrible, in spite of my English degree, the other of which I'm flying through.

The baby cardigan is the Cascade cardigan. Easy, cute, a little bit of pattern drama, but I figured it out. The button holes are located at the tips of each leaf stem, see them? I've got cute flower shaped dyed shell buttons. Several inches of sleeve, collar and button placket and I'm done. This baby is due June 25th. I'll finish the cardigan today and ship it.

Husband is relaxing. Finally.

Boys have eaten oysters again. And not even under duress. Aren't they handsome?

I've been riding my bicycle every day -- hurts some but is good for me, I think. I've seen 5 alligators, one of which was a baby, and lots of deer. The kids went dolphin watching with Dear Godson's folks. I'm sure there's more, but I have to go to the beach. It's calling. Can you hear it?

June 09, 2011

We spent last weekend at Dear Daughter's college orientation weekend. Benedictine College is a lovely place in Atchison, Kansas on the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River (the hills and Crutchie are not a good mix... more on that later). She stayed in the dormitory while Hubster, Dear Son and I went off to explore St. Joseph. Before we left her to her devices, we got to sit in on a sample lecture -- it was the medieval-literature guy's Holy Grail lecture -- and, boo hoo, I want to go back to college and study medieval literature!

There was a bar-b-que and a dance and a movie in the quad. Her class of 400 and some is the largest freshman class in their history. The teachers and administrators we met were excellent and enthusiastic. The key? The president said it best in a presentation to the parents the first morning. Benedictine has chosen to be a Catholic, liberal arts, residential college. They focus on those so-called pillars without shame or compunction. And while I didn't think I cared particularly about the religious nature of the place, to have them focus on it rather than take a kind of wishy washy only if you search it out approach like the other places we visited makes this place feel purposeful and right-minded. And the liberal arts focus means that they focus on giving kids that kind of approach to life -- you learn about something and then make a decision about it. And you're not ashamed of knowing the history of an idea and how it's viewed by others. I like it.

The Sunday morning after we got back, this guy came for the morning while his parent's provided music for the 7:30 a.m. mass.

We made and ate pancakes, chatted about other foods that are sticky, played the vuvuzela, played with cars, played with Transformers, played the guitar, moved all the dry dog food into the water bowl (ok, that was a lack of supervision on my part and it happens with Leo too...), ate ice cream (ok, not ice cream but frozen bananas and frozen strawberries whizzed up in my Vitamix blender which I love in an unreasonable fashion -- it's fun to get away with something once in awhile other than moving all the dog food into the water bowl of course), took pictures, read the beach book, woke up Dear Son, and played fetch with Monte.

It was a busy morning. There is a reason Mother Nature makes it hard for nearly-49-year-olds to acquire 2-year-olds on a full-time basis.

What with driving all over the Midwest and all, I got a lot of stitching done on my Celery Cardigan. I love the colors (pretty true in this picture except that you can't see the sparkly bits in the yarn) and there is not too much overt pooling. And it fits beautifully through the arms and down the back.

I'm going to have to rip back the collar, though, I think. It's a little lettuce leafy and it isn't supposed to be. I'll take out a few of the corner increases and re-knit the plackets. It's more knitting than you think, though. Those fronts are widened by short rows and each row consists of the stitches all the way up the front, around the neck, and back down the other side. It's ok, though... what else do I have to do right? Lot's of time on my keester this summer.

When I'm thru working on Celery, I'll finally be able to finish this puppy. And it's all about the kindness of strangers here.

When I lengthened the body earlier this spring, did I think about the fact that I'd run out of yarn for the sleeves in so doing? Run out of a long-discontinued yarn? No, I did not. When it happened, I kicked myself all over the place until I thought to look through people's Ravelry stashes. Lo and behold, lots of folks have this yarn. Most of them have only a skein though, and I needed two.

I found someone who looked like she had two and emailed her asking if she'd like to trade for it. She'd knit with it already but was willing to rip out what she'd knitted because it was a UFO that she wasn't pleased with and send me the yarn. And she did! I sent her some sock yarn in trade. Gives you a little tear in your eye, doesn't it? Ah, me. The kindness of strangers.

Then, of course, I have to make a going-away-to-college afghan. I have no idea which one yet. Something with wavy stripes and fringe. I'll decide this week.

And, there's another baby due in the family later this month -- half-sister's having a girl. I'll make Cascade I think (Ravelry link). It's a cardigan with leaves for the button band. So cute.

Looks like a lot of knitting, doesn't it? I'll have time. My hip-replacement surgery is scheduled for the 5th of July. Put me in your good thoughts, won't you? Then, there's the on-your-butt recovery time. Plenty of time for knitting.

February 02, 2011

Leo's sweater is killer. He wore it to church last weekend with the sleeves rolled up, a good sign that it might also fit him next winter.

Here are pictures of the sweater in last week's snow, which, btw, was much more of an event here in the city than this week's so-called "snowpocalypse". Which wasn't one here at all, but was really quite something outstate. Hubster was stuck in Kansas City for two days as a result of this week's storm and was none too happy about it. He's driving home as I write as his flights are still cancelled today.

Another recipient of some stealth knitting came over to play with Dear Son's old cars and transformers today as all the kids are still out of school.

He woke up the 13-year-old, played his tuba (really -- made it make a noise and everything), played all the vuvuzellas, ate chicken nuggets and fried apples, watched an aggregate of 1/5 of The Incredibles, played with the dog treats, ran in circles, found the big ball, played with cars, vacuumed the house, and read the beach book three times. Whew. 2-year-olds are busy.

His stealth knitting will be ready in 2 weeks, in time for his birthday, and only Ravellers can see it.

I received a lot of spinning stuff for Christmas. Namely a new Matchless wheel and 5 ounces of Quiviut fiber to spin on it.

After lots of practice and reading up, I screwed up my courage and dove in.

First I got comfortable with how the wheel works using last month's Spunky Eclectic club offering, David's Gift. I've got 12 ounces, about 900 yards, of this SW Corriedale. It's the green, blue, and orange skeins on the left. Spun like a dream.

My first plying attempt (not great) is here (above and below) in the middle. It's Curiosities, SW Merino, from Hello Yarn and it's frighteningly uneven. I did not have the hang of the tensioned lazy kate -- I'm better now.

The blue and taupe in the middle here is the last thing I spun on the Louet wheel, a SW Merino/cashmere blend. N-plied.

And on the far right is the quiviut. 580 yards of really really soft. I kind of love it. I found a blog where the gal had spun hers up and made her husband work gloves that have lasted and lasted. And she swears that she machine washes them as quiviut doesn't have scales so it doesn't felt. I think I'll pass on the machine washing, but will likely make gloves from this super warm, super soft stuff. I think I can get two pairs, even.

So, that's what I've been up to around here. Stealth knitting and spinning. Life is good.

January 20, 2011

I've splashed this photo all over the internet... I may as well splash it here too.

I snapped it out the back door at about 6:30 this morning to show Hubster what he's missing while he's away this week (think mouse ears and killer whales).

I got a call at about 11 last night notifying me of Dear Son's school closure, but Dear Daughter's school still wasn't called as of 6:30 a.m. I was about to wake her when the television station's website was updated to include her school. They're both asleep now. Of course.

I'm finishing stealth baby knitting -- the baby's birthday is today. He is two, so not a baby anymore, I guess. You know him.

It's a good day to sit inside and drink coffee laced with Coffee Mate's Peppermint Mocha creamer and knit.

January 15, 2011

I've blogged about this stuff a lot. Seems I have a lot to say on the matter. Surprise.

First things first though. Things like this green egg among the brown ones give me a little lift. I know that there is a kind of hen that lays green eggs, but I can't remember which kind -- Mindy probably knows. Anyway, I made these whole grain pancakes for myself this morning. I get the mix and the eggs from you know where and the mix is way too healthy for the rest of my family. Too many oats and wheat berry chunks. They'll only eat it if I mix it with Busquick and even then, they notice.

Fine. More for me. I didn't use the green egg though. I saved it.

If I was a better blogger, you'd have a picture of a stack of slightly raggedy pancakes (this stuff does not make round pancakes) with a little bit of I can't believe this is not butter melting down the sides (I'm out of butter) and some Marble Creek Sugar Leaf Maple Syrup pooling on the plate. (More CSA stuff, this syrup, and it's worth every penny. It takes about 50 gallons of tree sap to make a gallon of this syrup. Stuff of the gods.) As it was, once the syrup was on the pancakes, all bets were off. ; )

Back to the food discussion. Memberships to the CSA to which we both belong (Community Supported Agriculture thingy) are about up for renewal. We both decided that we'd do it again this year. We both know people who've quit for various reasons: too much food (I get that); wanting to cook with different things and feeling pinned down to the seasonal fare (not so much.) Not judging, just disagreeing.

I love the fact that I come home with this random assortment of things and I love the challenge of fixing meals from the assortment. I'm looking forward to the spring greens season and asparagus season and tomato season. I don't much buy that stuff out of season here so I develop a hankering for it. It's kind of fun to wait for fresh tomatoes, for instance, and then to have the first one of the season and then to have way too many and have to freeze them.

I'm not really a recipe gal. I put things together and most of the time things work. I have a good cooking foundation (my mom and food network and lots and lots of cook books) and I've got adventurous eaters (for the most part) to feed. I've also got big eaters. A whole roast chicken lasts for one meal at my house unless you count using the carcass for stock. I keep a deep pantry too. Lot's of ingredients grouped in flavor or cuisine families -- italian, mexican, bistro style, comfort food from the 70's(although none of the ingredients for a tuna casserole come from the CSA... wait, potato chips and cheddar cheese...) -- you know. A kind of food.

Like, you can make a risotto with anything as long as you have stock and rice. Ditto a sauce for pasta. Any vegetable can be roasted as a side dish for grilled meat. Or sauteed with wine and bacon. Seriously. Carrots, onions, wine and bacon? Yep. Lick-the-plate yummy.

So the CSA appeals to me on a culinary level, but it also appeals to me on a justice level. On a planetary one. Less packaging, less travel, support local businesses. The CSA food is local (for the most part -- the coffee is roasted locally ...) and fresh. I like the discipline of using these things that are abundant right now. Turnips don't generally appeal to me or my family, but roasted and gravied up? They'll eat them. And ask what they are. We talked about the potato famine at dinner the other night as a result of eating turnips. Tatties and neeps... know what that is? Ok, not Irish, but Scottish ... British Isles anyway.

Bridgett and I also discussed the fact that we still shop at the local grocery store, but at about $50 a week, the CSA probably saves us money. I have to buy meat, because while the CSA has roasts and the like, they aren't usually big enough for our family. Bridgett had a deer to contend with each year so she doesn't buy as much of that kind of thing as I do. We both buy booze and junk food too. I probably buy more of that kind of thing than she does. She doesn't have teenagers yet. We both have milk delivered by a local(ish) dairy.

Another fairly regular (probably quarterly) source of food for my family is Time for Dinner. I go every few months with Amanda (of the comments) and some friends and while we fixed 12 dinners for the freezer, we discussed our CSAs. If you haven't done this kind of thing before, for about $200, you go in and they have all of the fresh ingredients for perhaps 18 different dishes. You choose what you want to make and then you make it and package it for freezing. They've chopped all the peppers and onions, they've skinned all the chicken. They've done the mise en place, basically. They clean it all up too (that being the best part of all).

I left with 12 six-serving dinners, many of which I split into 2 3-person servings -- perfect for when Hubster's traveling. My downstairs freezer is full, full, full. The kids ate several of their pizza calzones last night. Easy, peasy. And I made them -- no preservatives or packaging outside of the zipper bag I brought them home in...

Tonight? Time for Dinner vegetable lasagna with CSA roast chicken. Both are thawing in the fridge right now. Then we're off to see The King's Speech. Sound like the perfect Saturday? It does to me.

(Oh, and my Hubster and progeny will cart all those boxes up to the storage closet upstairs and I'll have my house back.)

(And another thing -- Hubster's doing some yard work outside wearing his sweater. That makes my heart sing. Life is good.)

January 14, 2011

My mom told me over the phone once, on a Christmas evening after all the kids had left the house and she was home alone, that she was cleaning up all the Christmas stuff -- putting it away -- and it felt so good. I was appalled.

Not today. I spent the morning packing up ornaments and garland and Santa statues and I wish this stuff was at the landfill by this time of year ; ) I have too much of it. That is, of course, the problem. Garlands for every horizontal or semi horizontal space, bowls of glass ornaments, Santa and Nativity collections. Sheesh. (I secretly love every kitschy piece of Christmas crap that I own. So there. But that love won't stop me from complaining about putting it all away come the middle of January.)

Bridgett was here doing laundry this morning (she's blogged about why... she's a candidate for sainthood) and she looked this pile of stuff over and kind of chortled and said, "This is exhausting..." As if her life isn't.

Well, it is exhausting. And this pile doesn't even include the darned fake tree that fell apart this year and would lean if you touched it and was wired together with florist's wire. I stuffed that thing in a dumpster this morning. It is gone. G. O. N. E. Gone. And good riddance. Aren't I jolly?

Now the boxes are all set to be carried upstairs to the closet they occupy for 48 months out of the year. Shameless.

Another weight lifted off my shoulders is this finished object.

It's my Aran Wrap Cardigan. I put it away last spring when I needed another skein of Eco Wool to finish it. We had the same color (down to the dye lot) as the shop, so after I finished Hubster's Portland, I finished my own heavily cabled sweater. This thing is warm. Good thing and we've spent some time in single digits this week.

I have to say that this unstructured kind of knit isn't exactly the most flattering thing I've ever worn. But I don't give a rip. I love it.

The only weight left on my shoulders is the weight of all of the ear flap hats I've been asked to knit now that I've shown an aptitude for it. After some stealth birthday knitting, I'll get to it. Promise.

Something that is not weighing me down is this:

My Dyeabolical Sock Yarn and Roving club offerings this month. Cool and crisp and sparkly and gorgeous. I'm going to pet them until they tell me what they want to be. No pressure.